Apple Releases 2017 Charts of Top Movies, TV Shows, Music, Apps

Apple unveiled its charts ranking the most popular movies, TV shows, music, apps, books and podcasts in the U.S. for 2017 — with both new and familiar faces in the world of media and entertainment.

The No. 1 movie of the year on Apple’s iTunes was Disney’s “Moana,” followed by Disney/Lucafilm’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and Warner Bros. “Wonder Woman.”

In TV, perennial favorites HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” were the top three programs. New series charting in 2017 included HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” NBC’s “This Is Us,” PBS’s “Victoria” and FX’s “The Americans.”

On Apple Music, Drake had the No. 1 album of the year with “More Life,” while Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” scored the most-downloaded song. Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” has already rocketed to No. 3 on the 2017 top album ranking since its Nov. 10 release.

Among free iPhone apps, Snap’s Bitmoji and Snapchat were the two top downloads for 2017, followed by YouTube, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Facebook, Google Maps, Netflix, Spotify and Uber. Nintendo’s “Super Mario Run” was the No. 1 free game for iPhone, followed by “8 Ball Pool” and “Snake VS Block.”

Apple also announced the App Store editors’ picks of their favorite apps of 2017. Calm, which provides guided meditations and mindfulness exercises, was named iPhone app of the year and Splitter Critters won iPhone game honors. For iPad, Affinity Photo was named app of the year and The Witness was dubbed best game.

In podcasts, NPR’s “Fresh Air” remained the No. 1 most-downloaded show of the year, while daily news has become a popular category with new podcasts this year like the New York Times’ “The Daily and NPR’s “Up First” charting. True crime continued to drive listenership with top podcasts like ABC News’ “A Murder on Orchard Street,” the L.A. Times’ “Dirty John” and Serial Productions’ “S-Town.”

The top-downloaded iBooks in fiction were John Grisham’s “Camino Island” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” originally published in 1985 — newly popular thanks in part to Hulu’s Emmy-winning TV series adaptation. J.D. Vance’s working-class American family memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” was No. 1 on Apple’s nonfiction books chart, followed by Mark Manson’s “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.”